Hannibal - out now
In this handsomely executed adaptation of Thomas Harris’s sequel from director Ridley Scott (Blade Runner, Gladiator), Lecter is now living in freedom as a curator in Florence. Ten years have passed since he escaped from custody; ten years since FBI agent Clarence Starling interviewed him in a maximum security prison. Despite her unspoken promise not to pursue him, Clarice, having been exiled to a desk job after a botched drug raid, finds her self lured by Lecter himself, who writes to her from Italy, confident in his pseudonym “Dr Fell”.
It turns out that Clarice and the FBI are not the only ones with an eye on the Doctor - billionaire and convicted child molester Mason Verger (played by a very heavily made-up Gary Oldman) remembers Lecter too. After using his wealth to escape a jail sentence several years ago, Verger was ordered by the court to attend therapy sessions… with none other than the celebrated Baltimore psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter…
Horrifically mutilated and paralyzed after an encounter with the psychiatrist years earlier, Verger is determined to see Lecter dead, and has set up a website offering a $3 million reward for information leading to his capture. Florentine police detective, Pazzi (Giancarlo Giannini), upon receipt of information from Clarice and the FBI, manages to uncover the true identity of Dr. Fell, decides to contact Verger for the reward. This turns out to be a big mistake, as Lecter susses him out and disembowels him with his characteristic theatricality - Pazzi’s ancestor, the real life Francesco Pazzi suffered the same fate.
Hopkins’ still holds the gravitas he did in Silence, and his sheer brilliance is both Hannibal’s saving grace and its weakness. Lecter looks more relaxed than ever – a genial doctor who hasn’t missed a night’s sleep in years.
Unfortunately, unlike Silence, where Lecter’s presence pervaded the film whether he was on screen or not, Hopkin’s talent serves to throw into releif the insubstantiality of the scenes in with characters that surround him. Sparks still fly with Hopkins on screen, but the interludes that exclude him are flat – fillers, really, before the old master enters for another aria. Julianne Moore’s Clarice has become more hardened after 10 years on the job (a diegetic Guiness Book of Records notes that she’s killed more people than any other female FBI agent) and she’s lost the youthful idealism that made her younger self so compelling. Her efforts to pursue justice are met with derision by her own colleagues, to the point that she becomes almost irrelevant.
The film lacks the focus and brilliance of both Silence and Red Dragon, most noticeably because Dr. Lecter is free to roam where he pleases. His liberty diminishes his power and capacity for horror. His depravity is too often bogged down with police red tape, and the underlying tension of Silence is replaced by an audacious desire to shock.
On the other hand Ridley Scott’s presentation is beautiful. Lush, sumptuous backgrounds are juxtaposed with claustrophobic close-ups and an artful layering of gore - the prostetic make-up used for Mason Verger (pictured) is particularly gruesome.
Violence and maiming are displayed with operatic intensity heightened by the classical soundtrack, more than likely a conscious choice given Lecter’s Florentine backdrop and his ‘Renaissance Man’ disposition. Fun to watch, Hannibal is masterfully shot, but nowhere near as compelling as its predecessor.
